Sleep>Mobile Phones
By Heidi Small
I think I can speak for the vast majority of teenagers when I say that the first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing we do before we (attempt to) sleep is to check our phones. Why? Why are we constantly on our phones when we are repeatedly reminded of the damage it is doing us? The simple answer is that our generation is addicted.
After having had a first-hand experience of this, and then of limiting my usage of my mobile phone, I have come to realise the benefits of the latter to my mental wellbeing.
I feel that everyone has got to a stage where they feel lost without a mobile device being within a 5 meter proximity of their every location. So much so that we go to sleep after spending hours scrolling through feeds, snap chatting friends and watching episode after episode of new releases on Netflix.
One simple effect that watching a bright screen right before bed has is preventing you from getting tired enough to sleep. Before you go to bed, your body has to wind down properly. However, with the introduction of brightly lit entertainment, this often feels impossible. The blue light causes cognitive stimulation meaning that our brains are still wide awake. This is down to millions of years of evolution whereby our bodies have come to understand that red/yellow warm colours mean sunset, and therefore sleep, while white and blue are a signal of daylight meaning being awake.
An excuse that I hear very often from my peers to justify why they sleep with their phone next to them is that they need it for an alarm clock. Yet the ironic thing is that it’s the phone that is causing less sleep which in turn makes it much more difficult to wake up in the morning! My solution would to buy an actual alarm clock with that one single function.
Not only does the mobile phone before bed cause less good sleep, but it has a knock-on effect the following day.
Tiredness causes a lack of concentration and makes us far more moody and short-tempered. This makes trying to focus at school and in our day-to-day life almost impossible. I know in myself not having enough sleep makes me a bit grumpy and temperamental. And I am well aware that it has a similar effect on others.
Really, what I am trying to say is that the extra time spent on your phone in bed instead of going to sleep is actually having a deeply negative impact on your everyday life. So tonight, why don’t you leave your phone downstairs, and just see if there is a difference when you wake up in the morning?
After having had a first-hand experience of this, and then of limiting my usage of my mobile phone, I have come to realise the benefits of the latter to my mental wellbeing.
I feel that everyone has got to a stage where they feel lost without a mobile device being within a 5 meter proximity of their every location. So much so that we go to sleep after spending hours scrolling through feeds, snap chatting friends and watching episode after episode of new releases on Netflix.
One simple effect that watching a bright screen right before bed has is preventing you from getting tired enough to sleep. Before you go to bed, your body has to wind down properly. However, with the introduction of brightly lit entertainment, this often feels impossible. The blue light causes cognitive stimulation meaning that our brains are still wide awake. This is down to millions of years of evolution whereby our bodies have come to understand that red/yellow warm colours mean sunset, and therefore sleep, while white and blue are a signal of daylight meaning being awake.
An excuse that I hear very often from my peers to justify why they sleep with their phone next to them is that they need it for an alarm clock. Yet the ironic thing is that it’s the phone that is causing less sleep which in turn makes it much more difficult to wake up in the morning! My solution would to buy an actual alarm clock with that one single function.
Not only does the mobile phone before bed cause less good sleep, but it has a knock-on effect the following day.
Tiredness causes a lack of concentration and makes us far more moody and short-tempered. This makes trying to focus at school and in our day-to-day life almost impossible. I know in myself not having enough sleep makes me a bit grumpy and temperamental. And I am well aware that it has a similar effect on others.
Really, what I am trying to say is that the extra time spent on your phone in bed instead of going to sleep is actually having a deeply negative impact on your everyday life. So tonight, why don’t you leave your phone downstairs, and just see if there is a difference when you wake up in the morning?
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